New Etiquette for "Below Stairs"

The ladies' maids and valets of the guests will not dine with the help of the house, and the chambermaids, according to the etiquette of high life below stairs, will not sit down with the scrubwoman, and in some places will also decline to eat at the same table as the bellboys. 

Are All Dreadfully Particular 

In the furnishing and fitting of some of the new apartments, and apartment hotels, several interesting features have been under discussion, says the New York Sun. In other days, in the old class of such buildings in this city, a dining room for children and servants was considered sufficient for all requirements. 

To-day in building a hotel, there must be a succession of dining rooms. The ladies' maids and valets of the guests will not dine with the help of the house, and the chambermaids, according to the etiquette of high life below stairs, will not sit down with the scrubwoman, and in some places will also decline to eat at the same table as the bellboys. 

The clerks, telephone girls and numerous other members of the staff form another set. At some of the hotels the clerks are served in the cafe, but it has been found that it is better that the clerical force and the housekeeper and the different heads of departments have a dining room of their own. 

The chauffeur still remains an indefinite proposition. Until lately he has declined in private houses to be classed as a servant, and only last year there was a protest about his wearing livery.  It is quite à la mode this season to register at a resort hotel “Mr. and Mrs. and chauffeur,” just as it has been “maid” or “man servant” on the out going ships. — Sausalito News, 1908

Etiquette Enthusiast Maura J Graber is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia